Frances L. Baker Bathtub Print
"Printed by S. Watanabe, Tokio"



Watanabe's early collaborations with the western artists Fritz Capelari, Charles Bartlett, Elizabeth Keith and Cyrus Baldridge were successful and are very well documented.

It seems that this print, by Frances L. Baker, represents an early attempt at collaboration by Watanabe which never went any further. There is precious little information available about this artist. I found the following in a French listing of artists


She was a painter and a decorator of the American school. Born in 1871 in Chicago. Trained by Collin and Merson in Paris.

I'm intrigued by the 2 seals in the lower left corner of the image. The five petal flower with the cross in it looks a bit like the inventory number seal of print S-4 in the Shotei catalog, pictured to the right, with the Japanese number ju which is "ten". The horizontal stroke of the cross inside the flower seal on the Baker print is too short to read the character as a ju. But, what is that seal? Is it Ms. Baker's? Is it a Watanabe seal?

The oval Watanabe seal also raises some questions. I've never seen this format of seal before. Why does it say "Printed by" instead of "Published by"? Were the blocks carved elsewhere (perhaps by the artist herself)? Did Watanabe operate merely as a printer for this project?

I'm not able to find any hints which are helpful in assigning a date to this print. So, we have many more questions than answers. If you have any insights to share, please get in touch.


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